Pavilion Room, Portland Hilton, Portland, Oregon
Thursday, March 23, 2006, Noon

1. CALL TO ORDER: President Jeffrie Murphy called the meeting to order at 12:06 p.m.
2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Secretary-Treasurer Silvers asked members to look on their chairs to find copies of the petition proposing revisions in the election procedure by-laws, signed by Pacific Division members and other APA members. She called attention to agenda item 8, explaining that the Executive Committee would present a motion to establish the ad hoc committee called for in the petition. Item 9 of the agenda concerned a special procedure the Executive Committee will adopt so as to approach the 2007 nominations in a way that acknowledges the petition-signers. Item 11 would give the body the opportunity to designate what the ad hoc committee would do.
The agenda was approved with no objections or abstentions.
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MARCH 24, 2005 (Draft minutes are published in the January 2006 Proceedings): The minutes were approved with no objections or abstentions.
4. ANNOUNCEMENTS:
a. President Murphy read the names of members who had passed away since the last meeting, and the body observed a moment of silence in memory of them.
b. Secretary-Treasurer Silvers reminded Pacific Division members to check in with the vote checkers and receive their voting cards.
5. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER: Secretary-Treasurer Silvers distributed copies of the APA audited report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005. The Pacific Division is shown as operating in the black, with income exceeding expenses. (This report is published in the May ’06 Proceedings.) However, Silvers pointed out, the report does not show the $20,000 encumbered for mini-conferences for 2006 and 2007, nor the amount needed to reimburse SFSU for the secretary-treasurer’s APA work during her sabbatical (no invoice has yet been received). Further, the auditor’s report shows the APA National Office as absorbing a “bad debt expense” of $19,438, but this amount represents divisional advertising and exhibiters fees from previous years that the APA National Office failed to invoice and/or collect, despite previous audited reports showing these funds as usable assets. This matter is one of several problems with past APA financial management and reporting practices that have been discovered by the new auditors and finance manager. Among the formerly published assets now written off as bad debts is income owed by exhibitors to the Pacific Division.
Turning to non-financial matters, Silvers mentioned that associations had adopted different strategies regarding the labor problems at San Francisco hotels. One strategy involved canceling meetings already booked, while rebooking for a future date. Another, pursued by the Pacific Division of the APA, involved refusing to rebook until labor issues were settled. Silvers pointed out that the former strategy actually rewarded the hotel management companies.
She then distributed a letter from Anthony Dugdale, a senior analyst for the hotel workers’ union Unite Here! Dugdale said that the St. Francis hotel now is being helpful to the union and that the union encourages the APA Pacific Division to contract for future meetings at the St. Francis in San Francisco. Silvers reported that, in view of this communication with the union, the Executive Committee has signed contracts to hold meetings at the St. Francis in San Francisco in 2007 and 2010. The Executive Committee is aware that the dates of these future meetings are not ideal, but they are the only ones that remained free at the St. Francis at the late date at which the contracts were signed. The Executive Committee balanced the strongly expressed views of some APA members and the APA Board of Officers’ policy of support for the hotel workers’ union against the difficulties the dates might present for other members, and the former prevailed.
The contracts permit the APA to cancel without penalty if members believe there is a labor dispute, as long as the division rebooks for a future meeting at the St. Francis. The major impediment to canceling continues to be the labor involved in moving a meeting, but the current chair of the APA Board has pledged full staff assistance if there is a need to move a meeting. Silvers observed that in contrast to the St. Francis, the San Francisco Hilton, which was the main target of the meeting cancellation strategy, and the other twelve San Francisco hotels, were still under boycott by the union.
Silvers reported that Fred Schueler will chair the 2007 Program Committee and Mark Wrathall will chair the 2008 Program Committee.
Silvers then asked the body to rise and thank Sara Goering, the 2006 program chair, and her program committee for a wonderfully rich and exciting program. The motion was endorsed unanimously. On behalf of the Executive Committee, she presented a piece of artglass from Portland’s Saturday Market to Goering, and a gift to Goering’s 13 month old daughter Ella with thanks for allowing her mother to make so many valuable contributions to the APA.
6. REPORT OF THE PACIFIC DIVISION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Executive Committee Chair Sara Goering reported on the work of the Executive Committee. At its meeting the previous evening, the Executive Committee had allocated $3,250 for the 2006 Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute for Undergraduates that is intended to help remedy under-representation of various groups in the profession. The Institute’s staff will be urged to recruit participants from the Pacific Division region very vigorously. The Executive Committee also encumbered $5,000 for a mini-conference on Spinoza’s Psychology, contingent on a strengthening of its organizing committee membership. The Executive Committee renewed its participation in the pooled divisional advertising revenue program that helps support all three divisions’ meeting operations. And the Executive Committee has restricted the proportion of Pacific Division registration income that is allocated to the APA National Office to the use of defraying costs of National Office convention support.
7. REPORT FROM THE APA BOARD OF OFFICERS: Silvers explained that neither Board Chair Sosa nor Acting Director Mann was available to make a report at the business meeting. She had been asked to report that the search for a new Executive Director was progressing, and semi-finalists were being interviewed at the Pacific Division meeting. She added that there were more and better applicants than in previous searches.
8. ACTION ON CREATION OF AD HOC COMMITTEE TO FORMULATE WORDING FOR AMENDMENTS TO PACIFIC DIVISION BY-LAWS: On behalf of the Pacific Division Executive Committee, Vice President Normore moved the creation of an ad hoc committee to formulate wording for amendments to the Pacific Division by-laws. He then turned the floor over to Laurie Shrage, who explained the motivation behind her group’s petition and the reasons the petition called for establishment of such an ad hoc committee. After discussion, and when no further speakers sought recognition, the chair put the question to the body. The motion carried with 29 in favor, 0 opposed, and two abstentions.
9. CREATION OF 2007 NOMINATING COMMITTEE: Secretary Silvers reported that the Executive Committee will assign its authority and responsibility to form a nominating committee to the ad hoc committee. The Executive Committee is doing so because the ad hoc committee is responsible for deciding how to respond to the requests and recommendations contained in the petition requesting bylaw changes. The petition proposes a change to an elected nominating committee, but the mechanism for making such a change requires clarification and interpretation. For example, the petition recommends that the Pacific Division look to the other divisions for guidance. Both the Eastern and Central Division have their immediate past presidents, who remain on their executive committees, chair their nominating committees, while currently no member of the Pacific Division Executive Committee serves on the divisional nominating committee. Otherwise, the Eastern and Central Divisions use different procedures to select their candidates for their nominating committees. Not knowing which to look to for guidance, the Pacific Division Executive Committee will refer the matter to the ad hoc committee for interpretation, judgment, and implementation.
Silvers added that the selection of a nominating committee, the nominating committee’s selections of candidates for office, and the ad hoc committee’s report all must be completed by early November 2006 so they can be published in the January 2007 Proceedings.
10. REPORT OF 2006 NOMINATING COMMITTEE/ELECTION OF OFFICERS: Nominating Committee Chair Keith Lehrer placed the 2006 Nominating Committee’s slate of candidates in nomination. (The names of nominees are published in the January 2006 Proceedings.) He described the qualifications of the candidates. The candidates were elected by a vote of 23 in favor, none opposed, and 9 abstentions.
11. ACTION ON PETITION WITH PRINCIPLES FOR AMENDING PACIFIC DIVISION BY-LAWS: Discussion about the charge to the ad hoc committee ensued. Eventually, Paul Menzel moved the following resolution: “The ad hoc committee will consider amendments to the Pacific Division by-laws concerning procedures for nomination and election of all officers, the executive committee, and the nominating committee, and the terms of all such positions. It may but need not propose more than one alternative to preserving the current by-laws unamended.” David Owen seconded the motion. After further discussion, which yielded confirmation of the idea that the Menzel motion permitted the ad hoc committee to consider further matters that might call for bylaw amendment, and when no one else sought recognition, the chair put the motion to the body. The motion carried with 26 in favor, no one opposed, and no abstentions.
Discussion of the ad hoc committee continued. Secretary Silvers announced that Laurie Shrage’s request to have a request for volunteers for the ad hoc committee posted on the APA website, and circulated to the email list, would be forwarded to the APA National Office with a request for action on it.*
12. ADJOURNMENT: At 12:59 p.m., Rega Wood called for the orders of the day. The chair moved to the next agenda item, “new business.” Having received no request for additional business to be put before the body, the chair moved to the final agenda item, “adjournment,” and put the question of adjournment to the body. The body voted 19 in favor, none opposed, and none abstaining, to sustain the orders of the day and adjourn at 1:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Anita Silvers
Secretary-Treasurer

*In Spring 2006, the Executive Committee appointed the following individuals to form the Ad Hoc Committee: Patricia Hanna, Bernard Linsky, Paul Menzel (chair), Robert Pasnau, Ronald Sundstrom, and Alison Wylie. The Executive Committee made sure that two-thirds of the Ad Hoc Committee’s membership, including the chair, consisted of petition-signers so as to be sure that the proposals advanced in the petition were addressed. The report of and proposals from the Ad Hoc Committee are included in this Proceedings. – A.S.